MASB Artist Travel Prize Goes to Two Baltimore Artists


Black-and-white photograph of Anna by Elena Volkova, a single of the winners of the MASB Artist Travel Prize

Two Baltimore artists, Elena Volkova and Jackie Milad are the winners of the MASB Artist Vacation Prize. They will acquire $6,000 to aid fund travel essential to their studio follow. 

BY KAZEEM ADELEKE

BALTIMORE, MD – Elena Volkova and Jackie Milad are the winners of this year’s Municipal Artwork Society of Baltimore Town Artist Travel Prize (MASB). As winners of this year’s MASB Artist Journey Prize, Elena Volkova and Jackie Milad will each and every receive $6,000 to aid fund vacation vital to their studio apply.

Elena Volkova: Ukrainian Portraits

Volkova’s successful vacation venture is titled “Ukrainian Portraits.” A local community arts challenge, Volkova examined the psychological struggles and activities of Ukrainians who have long gone via the harrowing experience of Russia’s invasion and how to empower them. The result of the collaboration is a selection of impressive illustrations or photos that humanize and empower the people today represented. Volkova’s objective of facilitating an artistic encounter concentrated on the empowerment and therapeutic of dispirited souls is effectively-articulated in these black-and-white illustrations or photos. Her archive of portraits employing a historic photographic course of action also bears witness to the struggles of Ukrainians as they go by means of the trauma of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

About Elena Volkova

A Ukrainian-born interdisciplinary artist, Elena Volkova works in the mediums of images, installation, and drawing. Her recent physique of perform follows the post-minimalist aesthetic and focuses on liminal area. They convey attention to each day experiences and these missed day-to-day moments.

An award-winning artist, Volkova has acquired many recognitions and awards. Her awards consist of the Janis Meyer Touring Fellowship, the Hamiltonian Fellowship, the Vermont Studio Fellowship, and the Stevenson University School Research Grant. Volkova’s will work were being section of the Artwork in Embassies software and have been exhibited in Sri Lanka and Myanmar.

A multi-talented artist, educator, and a person who loves impacting expertise, Volkova was a co-host of the photojournalism podcast, “Ten Frames for each Second.” She labored with J.M. Giordano on a series of interviews with area and global photographers. Additionally, she developed a series of panel conversations at the Hamiltonian Gallery centered on modern day art methods. The matters involve “On Drawing, Internet site Specificity,” and “Questioning Images.” She was also a producer on “Project Line 180,” a sequence of movie interviews with regional artists.

Elena Volkova’s function has been exhibited regionally, nationally, and internationally. Volkova at present resides in Baltimore and teaches images at Stevenson College.

Jackie Milad: Developing Multiple Layers of History

An abstract painting titled Planet Breaks Open 2 by Jackie Milad, one of the winners of the MASB Artist Travel Prize
Jackie Milad, Planet-Breaks Open up 2 (Dedicated to Clementina Saurez), 2022

A Baltimore Metropolis-centered artist, Jackie Milad, is the other winner of the MASB City Artist Vacation Prize. Born to immigrant dad and mom, Milad’s performs are motivated by her identity.  As a mixed-cultural person of Egyptian-Honduran origins, Milad’s resourceful observe brings forth a confluence of ideas that are occasionally chaotic. Adding to that innovative frenzy evident in the artist’s operates is her knowledge escalating up in a multi-ethnic and trilingual residence where by text, seems, layouts, encounters, and cultures cohabit in chaotic get.

The encounter of growing up in a multicultural ecosystem impressed a curiosity about background and heritage that proceeds to influence her get the job done. Her significant-scale paintings and blended-media abstract drawings and collages handle the levels, heritage, and complexities encompassing multi-ethnic id.  But outside of the many layers of historical past inherent in her operate, there is also a performative factor to Milad’s perform.  The approach of layering, excavating, scraping, pasting, and inputting reveals the artist’s fascination with overall performance art.

About Jackie Milad

Jackie Milad has a background in effectiveness art and portray. In the early stages of her vocation, she was inspired by the get the job done of feminist and id-dependent artists. Right after graduating from artwork school and returning to Baltimore, she commenced to navigate new creative territories.  She sought out experimental time-based mostly artwork, and that turned a significant supply of impact for her later functions. In many of the works from that interval up until now, the artist combines drawing, painting, collage, and textile techniques to develop substantial-scale paintings to notify the story of her person choices, inspirations, and personalized history.

Also, Milad employs her operate to expose the power of cultural heritage and shifting historical narratives. Milad sees her massive-scale portray-collage follow as an integral factor of efficiency artwork and experimental techniques.   Milad currently life in Baltimore Town with her son and artist-musician partner. She is a comprehensive-time artist and serves as a member of the college and a mentor in the minimal-residency MFA application and the Curatorial Apply MFA system at Maryland Institute School of Art.

An award-profitable artist, Milad is a multi-12 months receiver of the Particular person Artist Grant from the Maryland Point out Arts Council. She was a Janet & Walter Sondheim Prize Finalist and a Robert W. Deutsch Foundation Ruby Grantee in 2019. Her perform is in the following public collections: the Pizzuti Selection, the GLB Memorial Foundation Selection, The Sheridan Libraries at Johns Hopkins University, the Robert W. Deutsch Basis, and Meta Inc (Fb).

What do you believe about the winners of this year’s MASB Artist Vacation Prize and their perform? Share your feelings. Depart a comment.